This is interesting topic - very academical! If the flash drives's plastic survived without any sign of damage - it was most likely not hot enough and not chemically aggressive enough to have an impact.
In terms of moisture and corrosive environments - there is hardly any worse environment than human's pocket in hot summer. People give out a lot of moisture full of corrosives and also static discharge. In terms of the actual flash chip - they are well sealed. The PCB in the drive is probably the weakest link from the environmental point of view - good rinse should take care of it. Other than that - you have clean, hopefully germ free, USB flash drive. I'd keep using it as if nothing else happened to it - never keep single copy of anything irreplaceable on a flash drive (any storage device really) - new or old, washed or full of germs. -T On Sat, 2019-07-06 at 14:33 -0700, Dick Steffens wrote: > On 7/6/19 2:27 PM, Galen Seitz wrote: > > On 7/6/19 2:17 PM, Dick Steffens wrote: > > > I put a flash drive in a shirt pocket and forgot about it. The shirt > > > and the drive went through the washer and dryer. I just tried it and > > > it works. (I had already downloaded the contents, so I wasn't worried > > > about losing data.) > > > > > > The question is, did running it through the dryer right after it ran > > > through the washer dry it out enough that it will be okay? Or simply > > > because it got wet, and corrosion began, one day it will die? > > > > > > Not a big deal. It's an older, smaller flash drive that I don't use > > > often. Just an academic question. > > > > It's certainly possible that there is still moisture inside. If you > > want to try to preserve it, try burying it in some uncooked rice. > > Alternatively, if you have an electric oven or toaster oven, you could > > bake it for an hour or so at 125 degrees. I wouldn't do this in a gas > > oven due to the moisture given off by combustion. OTOH, given the low > > cost, I would just recycle it. > > Sounds like the best plan. As I said, it's old (as these things go), and > I wouldn't want to depend on it. > > > Had you intercepted it between the washer and dryer, I might have > > recommended an extra rinse to attempt to get any detergent residue out > > of it before drying it out. > > Rinse and repeat. > > Thanks for your analysis. > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
